I am deeply touched by your invitation to receive the Pi Sigma Alpha Award. To be added to a list that includes Ernest Giffith, Francis Wilcox and Scotty Campbell is, of course, a great honor.

I assume that one of the reasons I have been singled out for this award is because I am on that short list of surviving political scientists in a city dominated at the highest levels by lawyers, economists and engineers.

Recently, I read Bruce Adams' article in the November/December 1979 Public Administration Review titled, “The Limitations of Muddling Through: Does Anyone in Washington Really Think Anymore?” In the article, Adams suggests that the political decision-making process is characterized by individuals who are “running themselves ragged on a series of marginal, short-run issues and problems.”